There is no «Grexit», Austrian finance minister says
There is no 'Grexit' and Greece continues to be a part of the eurozone and the Eurogroup, Austrian Finance Minister Hans Jorg Schelling said on Monday, on the sidelines of a conference.
Justifying the Eurogroup's decision to refuse Greece's request for a one-month extension to its programme, which ends on Tuesday night, Schelling said the Greek side refused to accept any of the creditors' terms.
The Greek government's decision to call a referendum with a negative recommendations had not left the partners any other choice, he added.
"We have the all the doors open and are willing to talk at any time. The finance ministers want to keep Greece in the Eurozone and are willing to discuss every solution and do whatever is necessary toward this end," he said, but Greece had quit the negotiations and announced a referendum "which is not a good way to behave."
He accused Greece of playing a "risky game" and noted that the two programmes were not so far apart as to prevent an agreement. Greece had instead chosen the political route and to foist the responsibility onto the Greek people but the question remained what will happen if the Greek people return a 'no' vote, he added.
In his opinion, Schelling said, if a new proposal was brought to the negotiating table this would be examined immediately but the current proposals of the Greek side were clearly not deemed adequate by the institutions with respect to their sustainability.
Concerning the decision to close the Greek banks, he said this was the right decision in order to stop the massive outflow of capital seen in recent months.
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